Longer answer: "Princess Tutu" is as good as "Revolutionary Girl Utena" if not better. "Naruto" is as good as "Bleach" or the comparable shonen genre work of your choice if not better.
Even longer answer: "Princess Tutu" is close to my favorite anime ever; "Naruto" is close to my favorite manga ever. They're apples and oranges, and comparison ranking doesn't serve either. I don't look to "Naruto" for multilayered references to and exploration of the story structures of classical ballet, literature, and music; postmodern fairytales; a marvelously strong heroine; a finite and skillfully threaded self-contained story that doesn't waste a single second of storytelling and still breaks its own boundaries; a breathtaking meta-narrative of fictional characters rewriting their roles and their world; the humor of a duck turning into a girl; and the subversion of gender roles and mahou shoujo tropes without rejecting them. I don't look to "Princess Tutu" for a sprawling modern epic; kinetic and exciting fight scenes; the effects of violence, war, and abandonment on children; extended families, adopted and blood, good and bad; political intrigue; earthy and irreverent physical humor; physically powerful women; scruffy little human kids who cry messily with snot and play stupid silly games with each other and sulk and whine and bounce like kids and break your heart into tears in a single moment of kindness, grief, or broken innocence, the terrible things adults do to children in the name of the greater good; transformation through determination and hard work instead of magical transcendance; and a huge, colorful, flawed, lovable, incredibly lonely cast of characters who have complex relationships with each other and with the world, who all grow and change visibly and often painfully over the course of years, and who all, in their own way, only want to love and be loved.
There are similarities, of course, many of which are what attracted me to both series and make both resonate so powerfully and painfully with me. Most notably I'd say Ahiru and Naruto are both unusual, compelling, and lovably human protagonists who were meant by their nature to be underestimated and overlooked and who instead rise to their challenges with fierce grace and courage. They grow up and grown into being heroes: their initial desire for recognition and strength is personal and naive, but their capacity for great empathy and inability to not empathize makes them reach out to people and redefine what kind of strength they want. In the end, Naruto and Ahiru want the power to protect people, to protect the people they love, to protect everyone regardless of gender, ability, or past sins. Their greatest, unstoppable, transformative power comes from love that is both selfless and still fiercely personal, and they express that love in unusual, physical ways: Ahiru through dance, Naruto through violence.
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Date: 2006-04-29 03:01 pm (UTC)Longer answer: "Princess Tutu" is as good as "Revolutionary Girl Utena" if not better. "Naruto" is as good as "Bleach" or the comparable shonen genre work of your choice if not better.
Even longer answer: "Princess Tutu" is close to my favorite anime ever; "Naruto" is close to my favorite manga ever. They're apples and oranges, and comparison ranking doesn't serve either. I don't look to "Naruto" for multilayered references to and exploration of the story structures of classical ballet, literature, and music; postmodern fairytales; a marvelously strong heroine; a finite and skillfully threaded self-contained story that doesn't waste a single second of storytelling and still breaks its own boundaries; a breathtaking meta-narrative of fictional characters rewriting their roles and their world; the humor of a duck turning into a girl; and the subversion of gender roles and mahou shoujo tropes without rejecting them. I don't look to "Princess Tutu" for a sprawling modern epic; kinetic and exciting fight scenes; the effects of violence, war, and abandonment on children; extended families, adopted and blood, good and bad; political intrigue; earthy and irreverent physical humor; physically powerful women; scruffy little human kids who cry messily with snot and play stupid silly games with each other and sulk and whine and bounce like kids and break your heart into tears in a single moment of kindness, grief, or broken innocence, the terrible things adults do to children in the name of the greater good; transformation through determination and hard work instead of magical transcendance; and a huge, colorful, flawed, lovable, incredibly lonely cast of characters who have complex relationships with each other and with the world, who all grow and change visibly and often painfully over the course of years, and who all, in their own way, only want to love and be loved.
There are similarities, of course, many of which are what attracted me to both series and make both resonate so powerfully and painfully with me. Most notably I'd say Ahiru and Naruto are both unusual, compelling, and lovably human protagonists who were meant by their nature to be underestimated and overlooked and who instead rise to their challenges with fierce grace and courage. They grow up and grown into being heroes: their initial desire for recognition and strength is personal and naive, but their capacity for great empathy and inability to not empathize makes them reach out to people and redefine what kind of strength they want. In the end, Naruto and Ahiru want the power to protect people, to protect the people they love, to protect everyone regardless of gender, ability, or past sins. Their greatest, unstoppable, transformative power comes from love that is both selfless and still fiercely personal, and they express that love in unusual, physical ways: Ahiru through dance, Naruto through violence.
Is that an answer?